Industrial buildings are frequently constructed with roof and/or wall panels secured to an underlying supporting structure. The panels, often in the form of metal sheets of aluminum or aluminum alloy can be arranged with their adjacent edges overlapped or they can be arranged edge-to-edge. The present invention is concerned with the latter type of construction. In particular the invention contemplates a panel installation system in which the panels are joined to each other by a seam strip which is mechanically connected to an edge of each of two panels. While seam-connected panels of this kind are not new per se, the applicant is not aware of a wall or roof system which employs the seam strip as part of the means for mounting the panels to a supporting structure.
An example of an edge-to-edge joining technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,741,593 issued to Andrew J. Toti. That technique employs an elongated metal seam strip having oppositely facing longitudinal slots therein for receiving the edges of two adjacent panels. After insertion of the panel edges into the slots the slam strip is deformed into clamping engagement with the panel edges such that the panel edges also become deformed and are thus tightly required to the seam strip.